Research Easier With Indexing Of Ships, Passengers

Family History

July 03, 1999|By VIRGINIA H. ROLLINGS Columnist

Researchers in family history have long pored over names on passenger lists searching for ancestors.

They came from every country and through every port with differences in education, languages, nationalities, financial circumstances, free agency, religious beliefs, race and appearance. Libraries are filled with accounts of them and the reasons for their great ventures crossing oceans to the new land.

For millions, the American dream of freedom and opportunity beckoned. Millions of others were exiles fleeing the sword of religious persecution, or they were refugees of war, famine and racial hatred. They often came in ethnic and religious groups, some in comfortable cabins but many in steerage, crammed below deck. They were rich and poor, farmers, miners, slaves, countesses and convicts. Each craved freedom.

Family history researchers, piecing together the stories of those who came by ship, often don't know the port or date of entry of the ships. The thousands of names in daily arrivals, written in foreign handwriting with only a coded index or none at all has also overwhelmed researchers.

But now the task is made easier. Just type the ancestor's name into the computer and the information appears on the monitor. The name, the ship, gender, occupation, port and date of embarkation and arrival, and other information may appear at once on the monitor. But it might not. All names are not yet processed. Volunteers continue this eminent service, working in their own homes or in centers, typing names from captain's logs into the database.

The Immigrant Ships Transcribers Guild, or ISTG, founded in 1998, involves more than 500 volunteers uploading names to the guild's Web site. The Guild is asking for additional volunteers who will work at home.

The index divides information into several helpful categories. If you know the ship your ancestor came on, you may see the ship's index and the captain's log with the entire list of passengers. The information includes whether the person was a deck or cabin passenger as well as who came in steerage. Ships are alphabetized by port of departure and by port of arrival.

Ports are indexed with entries beginning with Argentina, Australia/New Zealand, and Belgium, continuing through ports of England, Germany, Italy, Spain, Russia, Scotland, Wales and the West Indies. Small U.S. ports of entry are included with major ports in New York, Massachusetts, Pennsylvania, Virginia and North Carolina.

Captain's names are also indexed with the manifests they were required to submit at the Customs Office. In addition to records of each passenger's surname, given name, age, gender, occupation and destination, the captain was required to log the names and ages of anyone who died during the voyage.

These new resources are on the Internet. Local public libraries offer Internet access to new and experienced users. Passenger lists gathered at the National Archives from most American ports were microfilmed long ago and are indexed in a program called Soundex, the coded surname system used for several other massive name files. Films of original lists may be ordered in the local Family History Centers but it is often difficult to select the correct film, even when the exact date of entry is known. (For several years, more than 5,000 immigrants per day came through Ellis Island in New York.) Soundex helps but many names have the same code.

The Ellis Island indexing project under way by the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints will include about 20 million immigrants who sailed past the Statue of Liberty to disembark at Ellis Island between 1898 and 1920. Volunteers at the local center in Denbigh and in 600 other centers continue to process the captain's lists.

A few examples to illustrate what you'll find in the lists:

* Emanuel Moran, engineer, born in Bofols, Sweden, 22 years, single, embarked on the ship, "Celtic" at Liverpool, on 7 June 1907. His destination was New York.

* Elizabeth Fawcett, a nurse, 59, of Oldham, England, left the home of her daughter, Mrs. Welch, of Percy Street, Oldham. She had "long hair, fresh complexion, gray eyes and hoary (white) hair, with no marks or scars." She paid her own passage; destination was 128 Randolph St., Passaic, N.J.

Crew members were from Scandinavia, Sweden, Mexico, Canada, England, and the United States. In Norfolk, May 7, 1921, Edward Brown, age 37, was hired boatswain on the ship, "Canoga." He was 5- foot-2, 145 pounds, with a tattoo on both thumbs. Frank Townsend, age 26, assistant engineer, was 5- foot-1.

His chief, David Mercer, British, was age 36. James Drew, age 34, was a cook with Mack Oliver and Oscar Sanford, both age 23. Clarence Bullock, age 22 was messboy; Raymond Gilley, wireless operator, was 19. Few men were six feet tall.

Many immigrants found employment in New York. Millions ferried from the island to train stations where their belongings were hauled aboard for journeys to Chicago, St. Louis, Omaha, Oregon, California and Canada. Trunks lifted off at great cities were placed again on trains going to Texas, Utah, and Santa Fe.

Ellis Island and the old Customs Center are now a national shrine, the museum filled with thousands of items which tell of courage and sacrifice, hope and disappointment of our ancestors. The new passenger indexes are another burst of light in the celebration of the grandness of America on the 4th of July.

BOLLING FAMILY REUNION. To be held Aug. 12-15, at Williamsburg Hospitality House. For reservations, call 1-800-932-9132. For furtherinformation about the reunion and joining the Bolling Association, contact Flora Bolling Adams at 220-1332.